


Home Is Where the Banelings Are

by Jane Elliot (JaneElliot)



Series: After the Void [1]
Category: StarCraft
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-05-24 16:58:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6160366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneElliot/pseuds/Jane%20Elliot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah and Jim, after it's all over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Where the Banelings Are

"Not for nothing, darlin', but this is a mite disconcerting."

Sarah looked back to the trail of greenery flowing from her feet, spreading out to carpet the dusty rock surface of the asteroid. The edges of the patch of plants were already starting to look a bit wilted, so she spun some more carbon dioxide and water out of the asteroid's crust. It would've taken everything she had to do that as the Queen of Blades. As the last Xel'Naga, her power regenerated before the newly-formed molecules finished wafting out of the dirt.

Satisfied, she turned back to the desolate, dead horizon and started walking again. "How many years have we known each other now, Jim? How many zerg did you see me create out of nothing?"

"Honestly, I always thought those zerg were already there and you were just waking them up."

"That was true at the beginning.  After the artifact cleansed me of Amon's influence, my powers increased dramatically."  She waved at the dirt before her and six banelings dug their way to the surface.

Jim swore and even though he was behind Sarah, she knew he had just jumped back.  It still felt a little strange to be so intimately connected to someone not of the swarm.  "What the hell, Sarah?"

She laughed.  "Don't worry, they won't hurt you.  Besides, I've given them a limited lifespan.  This asteroid isn't ready to support them yet."

Jim grunted and moved significantly closer to her as the banelings rolled along beside them, their simple minds pinging with enthusiasm at such close proximity to their queen, even if they did have a tendency to flying whenever they hit a rock.

Just because she could, Sarah sparked a fusion reaction in the center of the asteroid.  A localized time warp turned billions of years into seconds and Sarah smiled at Jim and pulled him into a kiss, neatly distracting him from the way the ground dropped several hundred feet as the crust settled down on its new iron core. He didn't even seem to notice when she drifted them carefully back down to the ground.

The banelings weren't so easily distracted, but as the new Char-normal gravity pulled them more firmly to the dirt they started rolling again, humming happily over the rocks.

Sarah, Jim, and the banelings walked together for quite a while before Jim broke the silence again. "What do you think folks back home are making of these little projects of yours?"

"I don't have to think, Jim, I know.  Most powerful psionic in the universe, remember?"

"Stop dodging the question, darlin'."

Sarah rolled her eyes and created a boulder, already weathered into a shape comfortable for sitting.  Jim sat down and let out a satisfied sigh.  Sarah joined him and the localized life support system she kept around Jim expanded to include her. She breathed out of habit rather than necessity these days, but she wasn't going to miss a chance to breathe in Jim's scent.  As soon as the magnetic field was fully established, she was giving this rock an atmosphere that the two of them could share.

"Sarah?"

"A religion might be starting up," she admitted.

At their feet, the banelings exploded into tiny sprays of now-neutralized acid.

Jim grinned, the kind of grin she'd never seen on him before she took him away from the rest of humanity.  The kind of grin that deepened those delightfully distracting wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.  "Really?"

"It's not funny."

"Of course it's funny.  Twisted, but funny.  Is it just the Terrans, or do you have Protoss worshiping at your alter, too?"

"Protoss, too," she sighed.  "You aren't going to ask about the Zerg?"

"I figure the Zerg never stopped worshiping you.  For them it's not so much a religion as a way of life."

That was a fair point.  "Kate Lockwell's doing a series of special reports."

Jim burst out laughing.  Sarah let his happiness wash over her and made the easy decision to abandon her plan to have the asteroid done by the evening.  After all, what was the point of being God if you couldn't blow off work for an afternoon?

"Hey, Jim," she said, discreetly spinning a patch of moss at the base of the bolder.

"Yeah?" Jim asked, still chuckling.

She pounced, knocking Jim off the boulder and onto the still growing pile of moss.

Jim immediately twisted them over so he was on top.  Sarah smirked and let him.  They both knew who was stronger and, besides, she loved the feel of his weight pushing her down into the moss.

"I like where your head's at, darlin'," he said leaning down for a kiss.

Sarah kissed him back, dissolving their clothes in the process.

Jim snorted into the kiss and pulled back long enough to say, "Now you're just showing off."

"You complaining?"

The corners of his eyes wrinkled up again.  "Never."

**Author's Note:**

> After following this story for a decade and a half, I found the canon conclusion to the series to be a little spare. Chances are you'll see more little tidbits like these.


End file.
